Brassica juncea has worldwide adaptation. It is grown as a leaf and stem vegetable and as a salad crop in the Far East and Southeast Asia. B. juncea is cultivated in Western Canada as a spice crop and traded as oriental or brown mustard. Due to its relatively high oil content, B. juncea is also grown as an oilseed crop in India, China and in south-western areas of the former Soviet Union. Most of the vegetable, spice and oilseed B. juncea types grown in the world are known as mustard quality as they contain high levels of glucosinolates in the meal and high levels of erucic acid in the oil fraction.
Brassica napus and Brassica rapa are two other species of Brassica commonly grown worldwide. Certain forms of B. napus and B. rapa are known as canola. Canola is an improved form of B. napus and B. rapa. Oilseed breeders developed low glucosinolate and low erucic acid forms of B. napus and B. rapa to improve oil and meal quality. Canola is defined by the Canola Council of Canada as containing less than 2% erucic acid content by weight and less than 30 μmoles of total glucosinolates per gram of defatted meal.
B. juncea has agronomic advantages over B. napus and B. rapa. B. juncea shows greater drought and heat tolerance than B. napus and B. rapa and has the potential to allow for the expansion of canola production into drier areas such as the southern Canadian prairies, upper Midwest of the United States and in Eastern and Western Australia (Woods, et al., 1991). B. juncea appears to have greater pod shattering resistance than B. napus and B. rapa which may allow for direct cutting. B. juncea also has different genes for blackleg (Leptosphaeria maculans) resistance than B. napus and B. rapa which may provide some additional resistance.
Until recently, all forms of B. juncea were mustard quality and could not be traded as canola. During the past twenty-five years there has been significant activity to introduce canola quality traits into B. juncea in an effort to change the grain quality while retaining many of the agronomic benefits of B. juncea. 
Three distinct changes in key quality traits were required before B. juncea could be considered canola quality. The first change was the development of low erucic acid B. juncea (Kirk and Oram, 1981). The second change was the development of a low glucosinolate form of B. juncea. Love, et al., (1991) reported the development of a low glucosinolate form of B. juncea derived from an interspecific cross between B. rapa and B. juncea. Both of these publicly available sources were the first steps toward introducing canola quality traits to B. juncea. 
The third change in quality traits required another change in fatty acid composition. While the development of zero erucic acid B. juncea changed the C18 fatty acid complex somewhat (Table 1), there were not enough changes to produce a B. juncea plant with a canola fatty acid profile. The zero erucic acid forms had too low a level of oleic acid (C18:1) and too high of levels of linoleic acid (C18:2) and linolenic acid (C18:3) to be considered comparable to canola.
TABLE 1Comparison of fatty acid profiles of key fattyacids in various B. napus and B. juncea types- data from 2000 Canadian field trialsC18:0C18:1C18:2C18:3C22:1StearicOleicLinoleicLinolenicErucicBrassica typeacidacidacidacidacidCanola - B. napus1.4164.7218.599.530.00Canola - B. rapa1.4259.9220.8612.450.00Mustard B. juncea0.9216.3720.089.8538.01Zero erucic B. juncea2.6744.6333.9211.530.00
Several groups began the task of changing the canola fatty acid profile in B. juncea. The first group based in Agriculture Canada Saskatoon has attempted the task by crossing B. napus to B. juncea in hopes of recovering a stable canola quality fatty acid profile from B. napus. Raney, et al., (1995) reported the transfer of the B. napus fatty acid profile from B. napus to B. juncea using B. napus, however, the authors noted that there was poor female fertility and genetic instability present in their B. juncea breeding lines.
Agnihotri, et al., (1995) produced crosses of Eruca sativa×B. juncea and reported an oleic acid content of 61.9%, but the glucosinolate content was approximately 104 μmoles of glucosinolates per g of meal which would be unacceptable as canola quality. This material was derived directly from a direct F1 cross, so the genetic stability was not demonstrated and there has been no subsequent published work on this project. Given the distant genetic relationship between E. sativa and B. juncea, it would be expected that there would be genetic instability and that the canola profile would be difficult to stabilize.
Applicants have also conducted interspecific crossing to transfer the canola fatty acid profile from B. napus and B. rapa to B. juncea. Several rounds of interspecific crossing were undertaken in an attempt to develop a canola quality fatty acid profile. Although canola fatty acid profile materials were developed, they were not stable across generations and were not repeatable across greenhouse and field environments. The plants showed effects of interspecific crossing as described by Raney, et al., (1995), including poor fertility and variation in leaf, flower and pod morphology.
Saskatchewan Wheat Pool has developed high oleic acid, low linoleic and low α-linolenic acid B. juncea genotypes by crossing two parental B. juncea lines (Potts, et al., 2001). The parental lines were not high in oleic acid or low in linoleic and linolenic acids and the authors could not provide a scientific explanation as to how the variation arose. The derived material produced an oleic acid content of greater than 55%, a linoleic acid of less than 25% and a linolenic acid content of less than 14% by weight. The source material was developed in a background of less than 30 μmoles of total glucosinolates. Potts, et al., (2001) attempted to use ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS) microspore mutagenesis to alter the C18 fatty acid complex and were not able to significantly change the fatty acid variation within the C18 complex.
The claimed source of the canola fatty acid profile was developed in a low glucosinolate B. juncea breeding population. Some segregants produced the canola fatty acid profile, but contained glucosinolate levels beyond the canola definition. Seed EMS mutagenesis was used in a targeted effort to alter the C18 fatty acid complex without affecting the other plant characteristics. This application discloses the development of a stable, easily identifiable source of canola fatty acid profile in B. juncea in either a canola or non-canola glucosinolate quality background.